Convert Word to PDF without Microsoft Office

The short answer: a browser is enough

You don't need Microsoft Office, an app or an account to turn a Word file into a PDF. The browser on your phone or computer can do it:

1. Open Word to PDF in an up-to-date browser on your phone or computer. Our tests ran in Chrome.
2. Tap Choose Word files and pick your .docx document. On a computer you can drop it onto the page instead.
3. Wait a moment. The document's row shows what is happening: reading, laying out the pages, writing the PDF.
4. Press Download. The PDF gets your document's name, so leave-letter.docx becomes leave-letter.pdf.
5. Open the PDF and look through every page before you send it. The check list below shows what to look for.

The work happens inside your browser, on your own device. Your document is not uploaded, and there is no sign-up and no watermark. A short letter takes a moment: in our tests on a computer, a one-page leave letter took 0.1 to 0.2 seconds.

Two honest limits first. It reads .docx files, the Word format used since 2007, but not older .doc files. And it is not Word itself: it draws your pages with free fonts that have Word's letter widths. For everyday documents the pages come out very close to Word's, but we can't promise they are identical.

First, check that your file is a .docx

Look at the end of the file's name. If it ends in .docx, you are ready. Almost every Word file you receive today is one. If not:

• .doc is the older Word format. The converter can't read it yet, and the row says so.
• A document locked with a password can't be converted either, and the row says it is locked.
• Anything else (a Pages file, an .odt from LibreOffice, a photo) is not a Word file. Save it as a Word document from the program that made it.

Can't see the ending? Windows and Mac can hide file endings, and both have a setting to show them. On a phone, the Files or Downloads list usually shows the whole name.

A .doc file and no Word? This is the one case where you need another program, once. Open the .doc in LibreOffice or Google Docs, which both open older Word files, and save or download a copy as .docx. Then convert that copy.

Came on WhatsApp or by email? The file picker shows files saved on your phone, so save the document first. In an email app, download the attachment. In WhatsApp, open the document and share or save it to your phone's files. If you can't find it in the picker, it probably hasn't been saved as a file yet, so look in your Downloads first.

The other free ways, and what each one costs you

Every way of getting a PDF from a Word file without Word opens your document in a different program, which lays it out again. None of them is "exactly Word". They differ in where your file goes and what you must install or sign in to.

• LibreOffice is a free office program for Windows, Mac and Linux. It opens Word files and has an Export as PDF command, and your file stays on your computer. It suits you if you will do this often and can install programs. It is not Word, so some lines can break in other places than in Word.
• Google Docs works from Google Drive or the Docs app: open the Word file, then download it as a PDF. It supports Indian languages. Your document is uploaded to Google, and a complex layout may change.
• Pages and TextEdit are Apple's. Pages, on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, opens Word files and can export a PDF. TextEdit on a Mac opens simple Word files, and the Mac's Print window can save a PDF. Your file stays on your device. They simplify some Word formatting, so look closely at tables.
• Microsoft's own free Word on the web opens Word files and can download a PDF. As Microsoft makes it, its layout should be nearest to what the author saw. You sign in with a Microsoft account, and your file is uploaded to Microsoft's cloud storage. Microsoft also has Word apps for phones; what their free version allows can change, so check before you rely on it.
• Online converter websites are what most searches find. Most online PDF tools upload your file to their servers, and free plans of upload-based tools often cap the file size or the number of tasks.

Which to pick? On a phone with nothing installed, Word to PDF in the browser. On a computer you use every day, LibreOffice is worth installing. If you are signed in to Google and the file isn't private, Docs is quick. And when the exact Word layout matters, such as a form with a strict page limit, ask the sender for a PDF made in Word. No other program can promise Word's own result.

Will the PDF look the same as in Word?

Very close for everyday documents, and not guaranteed. A .docx is not a picture of pages. It holds the text, the styles and settings such as margins and spacing, and Word works out where each line and page ends when it opens the file. Any program that is not Word has to do that work itself, ours included.

The biggest cause of change is fonts. Calibri, Times New Roman and Arial belong to Microsoft, and a phone usually doesn't have them. Our converter draws each with an open font made to have the same letter widths: Carlito for Calibri, Liberation Serif for Times New Roman, Liberation Sans for Arial. Every word takes the same room as in Word, so lines and pages can break in the same places, while the shapes of the letters differ slightly. The fonts part of the guide has the full list.

What we measured. We couldn't test against Word, so we compared with LibreOffice, which also lays out Word files. We converted 23 test documents with both, and the PDFs had the same number of pages for 22 of them. Five everyday documents (a resume, an offer letter, a leave letter, an admission form and a Hindi office order) scored 98.7 to 100 out of 100, which says how much of the printed text sat within 1.5 mm of where LibreOffice put it. That shows how close two converters come, not that the result matches Word. The comparison section of the guide has every score.

Closest: everyday letters, resumes and forms in Word's usual fonts (Calibri, Cambria, Times New Roman, Arial or Courier New), with ordinary tables and pictures. Worth a second look:

• Other fonts. Fonts such as Verdana or Georgia are drawn with the closest of the open fonts, and a font the converter doesn't know at all gets Calibri's widths. The text looks plainer and its lines may break elsewhere.
• Aptos, the font newer versions of Word start with. It is drawn with Calibri's widths, but Aptos is wider, so the PDF can fit more words on a line and end up shorter than in Word.
• Charts, SmartArt and equations. A chart or diagram shows as a grey box and an equation as plain text. The row tells you.
• Newsletters in columns. One two-column newsletter in our tests came out at 3 pages here and 2 in LibreOffice.
• A table of contents. It shows what Word saved. Only page numbers are worked out again, so it can be off by a page if pages break differently.

If a rule says "maximum two pages", count the pages in the PDF itself, not in the Word file.

A five-minute check before you send the PDF

This is the same for every converter, Word included. Open the PDF and scroll through it the way the person who gets it will. The PDF Viewer opens it in your browser if your phone has no PDF app.

• Count the pages. The row shows the number, and it should match what you expect.
• Look at where each page starts and ends. If you can open the original in another program, compare.
• Look at the tables. Borders, shaded rows, merged cells, and a header row that repeats on the next page.
• Look at the pictures. A logo, photo or signature. JPG and PNG pictures are drawn; old EMF and WMF drawings show as grey boxes.
• Look at headers, footers and page numbers. "Page 3 of 10" is filled in for the PDF's own pages.
• Select a word. The PDF holds real text, so you can select, copy and search it.
• Read the numbers once. Phone number, email address, amounts, dates. A wrong digit costs the most.

Doing it all on a phone with no Office

Many people meet this on a phone. A resume template arrives on WhatsApp, the portal wants a PDF, and the phone has no Word. The steps are the same as at the top, plus a few things that matter on a phone:

• Keep the screen on and the page open until the PDF is ready. Browsers slow down or pause pages you aren't looking at.
• Mind your data. Opening the page downloads about 0.09 MB. A letter in English needs about 0.2 MB in all once the converter and fonts come, and one in Hindi about 0.5 MB. Your document is never sent.
• Expect it to be slower than a computer. One-page letters took 0.1 to 0.3 seconds in our computer tests. With the processor slowed down 4 times, roughly a mid-range phone, they took 0.5 to 0.7 seconds. We didn't test a real phone.
• Find the PDF in Downloads. On Android it goes to your Downloads folder. On an iPhone it usually goes to Downloads in the Files app.
• Rename it before sending. A name like yourname-resume.pdf tells the reader more than resume-final.pdf.
• Share it. In WhatsApp, tap attach, choose Document and pick the file. Gmail takes attachments up to 25 MB; a bigger file is sent as a Google Drive link.

A very long document full of big photos is where a phone is most likely to give up, because it has less memory than a computer. We ran our tests in Chrome, and we didn't test Safari or Firefox, so on those browsers it should work the same way, but we haven't seen it.

Why "no upload" matters most when you have no Office

When Word isn't there, many people drop their file on whichever converter website comes first. That file may be a resume with your phone number, an offer letter with your salary, a rent agreement, or an application with your Aadhaar or PAN number. On an upload-based site it travels to a computer you don't control, and even if the site promises to delete it later, you can't check.

Here, your own browser reads the document and writes the PDF. In every test run we looked at each request the page made: none left this site, and none sent anything. You can see this yourself in your browser's network panel. Our privacy page has the details. For a very private PDF, Protect PDF can lock a copy with a password on your device too. Tell the password by phone, not in the same chat as the file.

After converting: size, merging and keeping the Word file

Size. A PDF made from typed text is small. In our tests, a student's one-page leave letter of 6.2 KB became a 13 KB PDF, and a one-page resume with a photo, 13 KB in Word, became a 31 KB PDF. Big photos make a bigger PDF. When a portal gives a size limit, Resize PDF fits the PDF under a limit you choose. The PDF compressor is for when there is no exact number.

Several papers in one PDF. Job and college forms often want a cover letter, a resume and certificates in one file. Convert each Word document, turn photos of certificates into a PDF with JPG to PDF, then join everything in the right order with Merge PDF. Several Word files can be added at once: they are converted one after another, each with its own Download button.

Keep the Word file. The PDF is for sending. To change something later, change the .docx and convert again. PDF to Word on this site can turn a PDF back into a Word file, but its page says the result is close, not exact.

Writing in Hindi, Tamil or another Indian language? Nine scripts work, as long as the text is Unicode and not an old font like Kruti Dev. The next article covers it in full.

When something looks wrong, and what to do

"An older Word file (.doc)"

Open it in LibreOffice or Google Docs, save a copy as .docx, and convert that.

"Locked with a password"

Ask the sender for a copy without the password. Or, if you know it, open the file in a program that can open protected Word files, such as LibreOffice, and save a copy without it.

"Couldn't be read as a Word document"

The file may be damaged, or another kind of file renamed to .docx. Download it again.

"The fonts couldn't be downloaded"

Check your internet connection and add the document again.

"The converter stopped"

The document may be too big for the device's memory. Close other tabs and apps, or use a computer.

A grey box where a chart was

Charts and SmartArt aren't drawn yet. Ask whoever made the document to paste the chart as a picture, then convert the new file. The same fix works for an equation that came out as plain text.

Lines end in other places than in Word

The document probably uses a font other than Word's usual ones, or Aptos, so the open font takes different room. For a form with a strict limit, ask for a PDF made in Word.

Tracked changes or comments

The converter reads the document as if every change had been accepted: added text shows as normal text, deleted text is left out, and comments don't appear. The guide doesn't cover this, so if the changes matter, ask the sender for a clean final copy and read the PDF closely.

The guide lists more in notes under a result and limits. Whichever way you make the PDF, open it and read it before you send it.